True Stories Sharing the Art and Science of Fascinating Insects

Little Metalmark Butterfly . . . photo by Phineas T. Bluster

Ecstatic! That’s what I was when I arrived in Shellman Bluff, Georgia. Nancy and John could not have been more gracious. Four days on the Georgia coast, with the river just behind, looking out at the panoramic wetland.

Nancy and John are birders, who have more recently begun photographing butterflies. They said that they would do all that they could to find us Little Metalmarks, Eastern Pygmy blues, Great Southern whites, Salt Marsh Skippers and more. Both have eagle-eyes, and both could not have been more gracious, spotting for me, and giving me first dibs.

My first introduction to Little Metalmarks, I had to pause and just amaze at how tiny they were. Tiny and nectaring on tiny yellow blooms. How tiny? Very tiny. Wingspan of less than ¾ of an inch. That buzzed me, for it explained why most of the images of this butterfly that I had ever seen weren’t prize winners.

Why, because they are sooo tiny, and they remain on a bloom for a short time, and to capture what I most wanted, my Macro- lens and I had to get down, down, down to them, and then . . . once down with them, they would leave the flowerhead, and move to another, 8 feet away. So there I am, now down almost to the ground, looking at, a butterfly-less flower.

What was it that I most wanted? I wanted to capture those silvery metallic lines that span their wings, as those metallic lines reflected the sunlight. It was a sunny day, so I shot away, asking my back to be patient and stick with me.

So, I wish I could say that this image was taken by Phineas T. Bluster (of fleeting fame), but alas, this is my image, of a Super day in Shellman Bluff (I love that name), courtesy of Nancy and John, and those precious winged beauties, Little Metalmarks.